Bournemouth Symphony Orchestraconcert season 2015 / 16

Guildhall, Portsmouth

BSO as our Chief Conductor will see him leading us to our 125th Anniversary in 2018 and beyond. These are indeed exciting times.

The season is full of outstanding programmes and I am particularly excited by our artistic rostra, with many performers new to the BSO joining those we have known and loved for many years. For me it is this mix that builds a season into a memorable journey for musicians and audiences alike. We are especially delighted to welcome Augustin Hadelich as our Artist-in-Residence for the season.

As we launch the 2015 / 16 season our excitement at the new programme is only enhanced by the memory of so many outstanding performances by the Orchestra in the last year. As ever our musicians lay at the heart of everything we do at Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and great credit must go to them for their brilliant playing. Kirill Karabits’ inspiring artistic leadership of the organisation is being appreciated by ever growing audiences and we are delighted that Kirill’s renewed commitment to the

The BSO has a unique remit to provide world-class music and cultural engagement to communities across the South and South West and in doing so brings national and international recognition to our region. Your support has never been more important to sustain the future of this cultural beacon.

I would like to thank everyone who supports this remarkable organisation.

Dougie Scarfe Chief Executive

Welcome

de fallaThe Three Cornered

Hat Suiterachmaninov

Piano Concerto No.2stravinsky

Petrushka (1947 version)

Carlos Miguel Prietoconductor

Boris Giltburgpiano

Petrushka

Stravinsky’s great ballet has gone through a fascinating series of metamorphoses since first conceived as a concert piece, inspired by the immensely popular puppet plays of 19th century Russia. The score is one of his most brilliant achievements, bursting with the energy and inventiveness of youth. The depth of characterisation is astonishing; Stravinsky gives the melancholy puppet enough personality to make listeners care about him, without letting us forget that he

is made of straw and cloth, not flesh and blood. Rachmaninov’s most enduring masterpiece is the Second Piano Concerto. Rising out of mysterious depths of bell-like tolls, it quickly establishes itself as a rich and mature Romantic work with its surging themes, incessant energy and yearning passion that never fail to stir the emotions. In contrast de Falla’s light and airy work is a highly stylised depiction of Spanish life.

friday

16 october 7.30 pm

“a terrific performance, full of taut energy and

vigour, with a wonderful climax, affirming that

the bso had well and trulysettled into the exciting

season ahead”Bachtrack

Dvorák Symphony No.6Poole, Lighthouse

January 2015

beethoven Egmont Overtureprokofiev Piano Concerto No.1shostakovichSymphony No.11

‘The Year 1905’

James Gaffiganconductor

Alexander Gavrylyukpiano

1905

Shostakovich’s massive Eleventh Symphony depicts the events of 1905 when a first, unsuccessful Russian revolution had taken place. Satisfying the cultural bureaucrats’ directive for straightforward, uplifting music, it cleverly and subversively camouflages thematic materials from several revolutionary songs which strongly condemned the actions of dictators. It is a remarkable example of thematic continuity and integration, much of it derived from the

opening idea, which returns again and again, unfolding without a break. With its bravura solos and daring harmonies, Prokofiev’s first ‘mature’ composition announced him as a musical force to be reckoned with. This was a new kind of fiery Futurist music for the 20th century, full of hard, driving energy and speed. Beethoven’s dramatic and stormy overture is equally as stirring as it builds to its exhilarating climax and victory over tyranny.

friday

30 october 7.30 pm

prokofievSinfonietta

shostakovichCello Concerto No.1

haydnSymphony No.104 ‘London’

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Steven Isserliscello

Isserlis plays Shostakovich

Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto has assumed a place as one of the most popular and often-performed works for cello. With its rousing themes and emotional melodies, at times witty, at other times passionate, and virtuosic writing for the soloist, it is a most amazing accomplishment from its march-like opening to furious conclusion. His final symphony, No.104 was one of twelve Haydn composed for a series of London concerts in 1795. Showing a

lightness of touch and classical grace at its finest, it is the crowning work of a master. Prokofiev wrote the Sinfonietta at a time when he was turning away from the full orchestral sound and becoming increasingly interested in a pared-down Mozartian scale. Full of sudden key shifts and capricious energy it is a delightful study of orchestral colour and typical inspired touches.

friday

13 november 7.30 pm

Jesper Svedberg Steven IsserlisJesper Svedberg

sibelius The Tempest SuitegriegPiano Concertosibelius TapiolasibeliusSymphony No. 7

Kirill Karabitsconductor

Juho Pohjonenpiano

Sibelius 150

The incidental music for The Tempest, the tone poem Tapiola and the Seventh Symphony were Sibelius’ last significant compositions. Possibly the most ambitious and extraordinary symphony in the repertoire – a work of great confidence and affirmation – the Seventh is more a sort of giant rondo. Comprising one seamless flow of thematic development it builds from a few melodic scraps towards a final upward sweep and trombone hymn that

seems to reach out to infinity. Contrastingly, Tapiola is dusky, mysterious and brooding – evoking the god of the forest and a seemingly endless northern landscape untouched by human warmth, whilst the seldom performed music for Shakespeare’s final play is full of beauty, imagination and power. With its dreamlike, intoxicating atmosphere of magical sonorities it is the perfect foil for Grieg’s nearly perfect concerto, itself inspired by the Scandinavian countryside.

thursday

3 december 7.30 pm

Matt King and Carol Paige

Pete Harrisonconductor

Louise Dearmansinger

Stephen Wellersinger

Last Night of the Christmas Proms

Kick off Christmas with our fun-packed concert for all the family, featuring seasonal classics old and new, all wrapped up with a sprinkling of magic and sparkle. A rollercoaster of Christmas favourites lies in store, including Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Sleigh Ride, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. All this plus a selection of popular songs from the best of West End and Broadway musicals.

monday

21 december 7.30 pm

liadovKikimorashostakovich Violin Concerto No.1beethovenSymphony No.5

Kees Bakelsconductor

Valeriy Sokolovviolin

Sokolov plays Shostakovich

More akin to a symphony, Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto is a real tour de force of a piece, calling on everything in the violinist's technical arsenal as well as vast physical and emotional stamina. The wide emotional range of its four-movement structure encompasses brooding, elegiac melancholy with savage, mocking sarcasm before it gives itself up totally to a rhythmic energy and brilliance of colour. Probably the best-known work

in classical music, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is one of the great masterpieces of the early 19th century. If listened to with fresh ears it is still possible to be astonished at the force and compressive power of this awesome vision of triumph over tragedy. Liadov’s enchanting descriptive miniature starts slow and somewhat cryptic before becoming faster and more malevolent before finally fading away.

thursday

14january 7.30 pm

“this was a resplendent performance of a refulgent work.

i would have happily sat through the whole

thing again”Seen and Heard International

Finzi Intimations of ImmortalityPoole, Lighthouse

March 2015

kodalyDances of Galanta

beethovenPiano Concerto No.3

brahmsSymphony No.3

Christoph Königconductor

John Lillpiano

Beethoven & Brahms

In its final form, this concerto represented a pivotal moment for Beethoven between his first two fully Classical examples and the more Romantic models that would follow. It pays tribute to Mozart’s great masterpiece of the same key, yet also transcends the Mozartian constraints in a way only Beethoven could. Its opening has an unprecedented sense of power, purpose and potential; this is not just the start of a musical piece, it is the start of a journey into the unknown. Brahms’ Third

Symphony is more individual and characteristic than its two predecessors. In its striking mixture of passion and pessimism, of restlessness and serenity, Brahms offers a compelling, highly revealing musical self-portrait, rich with references to his own thoughts about life and love. The Dances of Galanta are based on authentic gypsy themes brought to vivid, colourful life by Kodály’s great skill as an orchestrator.

thursday

28 january 7.30 pm

Christoph König

Pete Harrison conductor

Heroes & Aliens epic galactic soundtracks

Join the BSO and boldy go where no orchestra has gone before in another blockbuster concert featuring music from some of the most iconic and successful space movies of all time, including Apollo 13, Star Wars, Star Trek, ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Avatar and War of the Worlds... plus many more.

friday

5 february 7.30 pm

Colette Overdijk and Mark Derudder

mussorgskyA Night on the Bare Mountain

scriabinPiano Concerto

berliozSymphonie Fantastique

Alexander Vedernikovconductor

Yevgeny Sudbinpiano

Fantastic Berlioz

With its daring music and staggeringly inventive use of the orchestra, Berlioz’ new symphony sounded like no other music yet written when it was first performed in the 1830s. With bold, unexpected harmonies, and melodies united around a recurring musical motif that he called the ‘idée fixe’, that are still, to this day, unlike anyone else’s, there isn’t a page of this score that doesn’t contain something distinctive and surprising.

Scriabin’s Piano Concerto is a passionate outpouring of fluent elegance and supreme delicacy. It gives no hint of his later idiosyncratic musical philosophy and language, and the influence of both Chopin and his fellow Moscow Conservatoire classmate, Rachmaninov, can be heard throughout. More nightmarish visions abound in Mussorgsky’s interpretation and depiction of a Witches’ Sabbath.

thursday

25 february 7.30 pm

wagner The Flying Dutchman Overturetchaikovsky Violin Concertorimsky-korsakovScheherazade

Frank Zielhorstconductor

Yossif Ivanovviolin

Magic Tales

Sheherazade consists of “separate, unconnected episodes and pictures”, as Rimsky-Korsakov himself put it, from The Arabian Nights: snapshots, in other words, of a world of magic and adventure. It is a triumph of imagination over experience; a feast of sumptuous colours and brilliant instrumental effects by the man who wrote the book on orchestration. It quickly became a favourite symphonic showpiece and a landmark in the history of descriptive music.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is a perennial favourite of violinists and audiences. Vibrant and confident, ironically, it dates from a crisis-laden two years in his life after the breakdown of his disastrous marriage. Folk music and French chanson merge with dazzling fireworks which display the violin virtuosity to the full. Equally as descriptive, Wagner’s powerful overture sets the scene of his stormy opera and doom-laden phantom ship.

friday

11 march 7.30 pm

Magda Gruca-Broadbent and Janice Thorgilson

beethovenPiano Concerto No.5 ‘Emperor’

shostakovichSymphony No.10

Andrew Littonconductor

Simon Trpceskipiano

Imperial Concerto

The Fifth Piano Concerto, essentially a three-movement symphony with solo piano, is impressively imperial in scale and impact and represents the culmination of what we have come to think of as Beethoven’s ‘heroic’ manner. It far surpassed any and all other concertos in its expression of majesty and power, immediately established in its opening sonorous orchestral chords which give way to

cadenza-like flourishes from the piano. Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony is forty-eight minutes of tragedy, despair, terror and violence, and two minutes of triumph; a reflection of the Stalin years in Russia, when as many as 20 million people died or else lived in constant fear, and a collective sigh of relief at the dictator’s death just months before the premiere.

thursday

14 april 7.30 pm

r strauss Don Juansibelius Violin ConcertotchaikovskySymphony No. 4

Thomas Dausgaardconductor

Augustin Hadelich violin

Violin Alchemy

The atmospheric opening of Sibelius’ only concerto casts an immediate spell of mystery. The solo violin emerges out of a murmuring bed of strings, with a long, yearning theme of ever-growing intensity, which continues to be developed throughout before reaching the thrilling finale – a pulsing hybrid of polonaise and rondo with some gypsy flavour thrown in for additional colour. As Tchaikovsky admitted, the Fourth Symphony is autobiographical; turbulent but finally triumphant; reflecting his

recent tribulations as well as his eventual recovery. The principal idea of the work, he said, is the implacability of Fate, a force that

“poisons the soul” by impeding the individual’s quest for peace and fulfilment. Strauss’ tone poem is a blend of sonata form and rondo, with Don Juan’s swashbuckling theme as the mainstay between romantic episodes and other scenes.

thursday

28 april 7.30 pm

Augustin Hadelich

academic partner

media partner

public funders

partners

in-kind partners

principal academic partner

principal media partner

principal funders

affiliates

broadcast partner

trusts & foundations

With special thanks to Paul Hamlyn Foundation for its support of BSO Participate

Esmée Fairbairn FoundationGarfield Weston FoundationThe Leverhulme TrustThe Foyle FoundationThe Valentine Charitable TrustFlaghead Charitable TrustThe Michael & Ilse Katz FoundationBasil Samuel Charitable TrustCoral Samuel Charitable TrustThe Marchus TrustThe Mercers’ CompanyCressy FoundationThe Pitt-Rivers Charitable TrustRalph Vaughan Williams TrustThe Garrick Charitable TrustGess Charitable TrustThe Radcliffe TrustThe VEC Acorn TrustAnthony du Boulay Charitable TrustThe Norman Family Charitable Trust

principal patronsDavid & Jill PetersRobert WhiteTerence & Annette O’Rourke

thank youTo our Performance Patrons and Champions and to everyone who supports the BSO through donations, membership or by volunteering their time.

FREE ‘Meet the Music’ pre-concert talks take place before every concert (except 21 Dec) at 6.40pm in the Council Chamber on the second floor of Portsmouth Guildhall.

ticket pricesTickets go on general sale on Wednesday 2 September.

£29.50 £24.25 £21 £19 £14.75

Ticket prices are inclusive of a 5% booking charge. (Charges apply for all ticket sales by telephone, online and in person).

concessionsThe BSO offers the following concessions to most concerts. Please note that only one concession applies per ticket and that concessions are not available retrospectively. Proof of status is required at the time of collection. All concessions and discounts are subject to availability.

BSO Kids for a QuidUnder 18s: £1 per ticket (some exclusions apply).

BSO Vibes£5 per ticket (for 18–25ssigned up to the scheme).

Why not book a package of concerts and save money? Generous discounts are available if you buy 3 concerts or more. Book for all 12 concerts and you will receive a massive 40% off!

Multibuy Discounts12 concerts 40%9 – 11 concerts 30%6 – 8 concerts 20%3–5 concerts 10%

50% discount forFull-time studentsWheelchair users and up to onecompanionPatrons on Jobseeker’s Allowance or Income Support

There are no discounts for disabled patrons, but an accompanying companion qualifies for a 50% discount.

Group booking discounts10 or more tickets 10%20 or more tickets 20%30 or more tickets 30%Group bookings must be paid in full one month in advance of the concert date, after which tickets will be released for resale.

tickets0844 453 9028bsolive.com

Portsmouth Chamber Music Series

The Portsmouth Chamber Music Series returns for a new season of Monday night concerts at the Guildhall. Full details will be available in the 2015 / 16 season brochure.

Please e-mail music@port.ac.uk to join the mailing list.

by roadPortsmouth Guildhall is situated at the heart of Portsmouth City Centre. From the M3 (Guildford), A3 (Chichester) and M27 (Southampton), take the M275 into the City Centre. At its end follow the A3 for a short while and follow signs to the Guildhall.

satnav use postcode PO1 2AB

parkingThere are a number of City Centre car parks, but the most convenient to use is Isambard Brunel multi-storey car park which is situated 200 metres from the Guildhall in Alec Rose Lane (PO1 2BX).

As a concert-goer you can buy a parking ticket in advance for £4.10 which is valid from 6pm until midnight. Purchase online or from the Guildhall box office in person. There is limited on-street parking adjacent to the Guildhall.

Portsmouth GuildhallGuildhall SquarePortsmouth PO1 2AB

public transportThere are numerous City Centre bus services which stop within walking distance of Guildhall Square, including routes 1c, 15, 17, 18, 19, 23 and 40.

Portsmouth and Southsea rail station is a 5-minute walk from the Guildhall.

Kirill Karabits Chief Conductor

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra2 Seldown Lane, Poole, BH15 1UF Tel: 01202 670611 www.bsolive.com

BSO is a Charity Registered No.208520 and a company limited by guarantee Registered No.538351 England.

All information is correct at the time of going to press – however artists are subject to availability and the BSO reserves the right to make any necessary changes from the advertised programmes.

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